I am unemployed this weekend. Work ended at I.T. UNITED yesterday, and I start my new job on Monday at Siemens China. Feels like a normal weekend, actually. So, what will I be doing at Siemens? My title will be Business Continuity Planning Manager, where I will be establishing and implementing Business Continuity plans. I suppose that’s all I know about it, so I will write a bit more about it after the first week.

IMAGE_340 Originally uploaded by chrisdrum. This is how the building management of my office tests the smoke alarm system. This guy is walking around the building with a cigarette and a PVC pipe, blows smoke through the pipe directing the smoke at the detector. Really high tech!!!

I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at work yesterday, Monday, to see many more sites accessible, and the speed to go with them. iTunes purchases are actually downloading (although not at peak speed), NetVibes works! YouTube works! CNN works! But flickr still doesn’t. The internet at my home still sucks. So I can’t connect to XBox Live to download an update for my console so Media Center Extender functionality will work.

Yesterday marked a complete shift in my idealogical thinking. I used to have the opinion that console game systems were worthless. “Just buy a really good computer and play games on that!” I would say. Heck, I prefer the Mouse + Keyboard combination over a controller any way. I used to play console systems. I had an NES, an SNES, then switched to computer gaming, then got an original XBOX for Christmas in 2001, I think.

Ok, so the flickr feed at the top is not working. So I didn’t fix it. And the Plazes thingy is kind of gay. Enough of that. So, for those of you who didn’t know (*cough* Matt…) the international Internet access from China (and much of Asia) has been utter crap-o-lah. The “Great Dec-06 Earthquake of Taiwan” might ring a bell. No? I guess non-asian residents don’t care. But surely, you’ve notices a reduction in your spam emails since then, right?

Finally spent a little time to fix some broken things on the site, and add a new function. 1. Fixed the flickr feed at the top (above this post). It should now show the recent photos I uploaded to flickr. It should.. 2. I added a Plazer “badge” to the right under the About Me section. It should show where I am, provided I actually tell the plazer system where I am.